Posts filed under 'Employee Retention'
National Politics vs. Workplace & Employment Politics – Is There Really Any Difference?
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
An admitted CNN Junkie (In fact, I am watching it as I type!), and in light of the political headlines which seem to change by the minute, I am inspired to discuss politics. Not THOSE politics, but rather office and employment politics and how they mirror the current national political headlines. Having worked in a true office environment for the first five years of my professional career, and speaking regularly to civil engineering professionals who work in an office environment all day for the past 11 years of my career, I’ve either witnessed or heard most scenarios out there as it relates to office politics in the civil engineering industry. That being said, I still probably have more questions here than comments, so I would be very curious as to your responses. Below you will find some recent political headlines and how they might parallel what you see in your office. Are these parallel’s true? What is your philosophy? How has your company handled these situations?
John McCain Is Too Old To Be President
John McCain is 72 years old, but he clearly believes that he is healthy enough to lead the nation for the next eight years. Should John McCain be elected President of the United States? He will be 80 years old if he serves two full terms. I am sure you have read all the rage as to how 60 is the new 40. Earlier this year we blogged about how one should never underestimate the gray haired engineer. What I am seeing in the civil engineering consulting world though, is that this philosophy does not always hold true. Companies may claim that they are on board with this belief, but when it comes to pulling the trigger and promoting or hiring folks in their sixties, they are very hesitant. The fact is, that generation is not retiring at 62 or 65, they are working well into their seventies. Many of these folks are vibrant, internet savvy, and well experienced with still a lot to offer. What is preventing you from considering these professionals for serious positions within your organization? Even better, what success stories do you have where you actually did hire someone with that much experience?
Sarah Palin Does Not Have The Experience
John McCain clearly went out on a limb by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate for Vice President, and though his campaign may not admit it as such, it was clearly an “out of the box” selection. Though she has executive experience, it has been only for a short period of time, and there are only three states with a lower population than Alaska. She has no foreign policy experience and she is extremely conservative. BUT, she clearly inspired the base of the Republican Party at their convention, she is high energy, she fights government corruption, she brings some new ideas to the table, and she has intrigued a lot of people. What type of risk does your firm take, if any, in making a strategic hire? Have you ever hired someone that doesn’t necessarily have all the technical skills you are looking for on paper, but has the energy and the appeal; that when meshed with all the other components of your company generated some great success? Or maybe you did but they fell flat on their face? What risks have your firm made in regards to this scenario? Was it worth it? What did you learn from if it turned out to be a big mistake?
The $700B Dollar Bailout
What I see here is that everyone on Capitol Hill is looking out for their own personal gain and best interests versus what is best for the American citizens. On a personal level, I’m still undecided as to what they should do as I feel as though the information is lacking, but we are in a crisis here and these elected officials need to put their interests and partisanship aside for the better of the country. From time to time, this scenario plays out in corporate America, and in turn in your offices. In a day and age where everyone is trying to keep up with the Jones’ and climb the proverbial corporate ladder, quite often professionals make decisions that work best for them, but not the company. Frequently this is a fine line. Maybe someone cuts you off or blindsides you in pursuit of a project that you had the beat on but were approaching differently and swipes it out from under your feet. Maybe someone is influencing the pool of staff engineers and cad technicians to spend more time on their projects which pulls them away from yours, with complete disregard to your needs. Or maybe someone on your team takes valuable information that you have shared (aka “stealing”) and takes it to his or her boss, or even worse, to another firm, as leverage to be hired for a bigger and better position. These people are not able to see the forest through the trees and I am sure you have bumped into one or two of these folks, right? How did you handle that situation?
Lobbyists & Pork Barrel Spending
Earmarks and Pork Barrel spending have been a contentious point, to some extent, between McCain and Obama. In a nutshell, lobbyists are hired by organizations to contribute funds and cozy up to lawmakers in order to receive funding for projects that they will benefit from. The comparison is pretty cut and dry here. Are there folks in your office that are “brown nosing” the executives in order to help elevate their own career, even though they may be stepping out of bounds with their own beliefs in the short term to get them where they want to be long term?
Like it or not, politics effect our lives each and every day. Whether it is at the national or international level, at the office, or right inside the walls of our own homes. Every situation is different and calls for a different solution, and often times there is fine line that is drawn. Just like in government, in office politics, it is how close you walk to that line, or even how far you step over that line, that determines your standing in the confines of your organization.
2 comments October 1, 2008
Increase Employee Morale and Benefits
Carol A. Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
With today’s economy, one of the last items on employers’ lists is “How should we increase our company benefits package?”
Now is the time to increase employee moral and what a better way, other than salary and bonus increases, then to offer no or low cost benefits? It also shows your employees that the company really does care about their well-being!
Arrange for a series of lunchtime speakers:
Financial planning should be of interest to employees. Why not offer a series of short financial planning seminars that are presented free at the office during lunchtime? Speakers can cover topics such as bill consolidation, financial planning, retirement planning, mortgage payment relief. Most speakers will be thrilled to present for no cost. A great way for them to market their services.
How about going back to the tried and true smoking cessation programs or weight loss programs?
Help local businesses while helping your staff:
Has your company arranged with the local Sam’s Club or COSTCO to offer discounted membership cards? How about arranging for discount coupons to movie theaters, dry cleaning stores, local sandwich shops? Keep in mind that most businesses are looking for ways to draw business to them. You can help your staff and help a business in the community. Sure employees can find these discounts on their own through the internet or coupons in the mail, but wouldn’t it be great to have your company get the credit for offering it to them?
Indulge your employees:
Another trend in the market is to offer employee discount travel. Everyone enjoys traveling but few can really afford it these days. A company arranges with a specific travel agency to refer staff. In return, the travel agency will give certain discounts to the company employees.
There is nothing like a good massage. Arrange with a local certified massage therapist to come in at lunch everyday for a week and offer chair massages. These costs are minimal. Many therapists are looking to market their business and charge $1.00 per massage minute. (I would pay more than that right now!)
How about arranging for discounts at the ice cream shop? at the local spa? at the fitness center?
Speaking with many of you in the civil engineering marketplace daily, I hear stress, apathy, frustration. Many of “us” feel unappreciated and concerned about the ending of certain projects and the start of new ones. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for our employers to make the effort to take extra care of us!?!
What types of no-cost or low cost benefits would you like to see offered by your company?
1 comment September 25, 2008
Company “Gossip” Websites
By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
One definition of Gossip is “a form of communications that an individual(s) participates in for the purpose of discussion, or passing onto to others, hearsay information.”
Office gossip sites are the next wave in sites for job seekers to review. Some of these sites are: Glassdoor.com, Jobvent.com, Vault.com. Many civil engineers are visiting the sites and writing, some say “critiquing”, the civil engineering firms that they work for or have worked for. These sites allow employees to confidentially and/or anonomously post information about company interview processes, company culture, specific management styles, benefits, salaries, bonuses, workspace and anything you can think to comment about. Comments range from “great company with strong benefits” to “avoid manager of highway design, based in corporate office, as he micromanages.”
Should companies be concerned…yes. Should employees take the time to comment on their company’s culture, management style, benefits, salaries, etc…sure. Should job seekers review these sites…yes, with caution.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Should companies be concerned?
Initially it seemed these sites were similar to the CivilEngineeringCentral.com (CEC) Forum “Ventilation Station”; a place to just let it all out. These sites have now evolved to include happy, satisfied employee reviews of their employers as well as the direct, not so positive critiques. Companies need to regularly monitor these sites and make sure that information posted is relevant and not just a disgruntled employee looking to slam the company. Companies can use the information as informal employee surveys ~ a way to take a pulse from the anonymous group. That being said, anonymous reviews should be read with a questionable eye. I’ll address this again under the value of these sites to job seekers.
Should employees take the time to comment on companies?
Yes, if you, as an employee, can write an honest evaluation of your current or past employer then you should. Discuss the interview process, company culture, benefits, bonuses, etc. Is your work space comfortable? Does the company encourage and pay for additional training? Do they encourage involvement in professional associations? What did you want to know about a company before you joined them? Try to be constructive, but honest, in your critique.
Should job seekers review these sites?
Yes, as long as you understand that what you are reading may be incorrect. Anonymous reviews are questionable ~ not necessarily false. Many of these sites have built in systems to weed out false reviews. Site editors review comments for trends and inconsistent information. So, job seekers shouldn’t avoid a company that receives some negative comments. Instead, they should use these reviews to prepare for interviews at the companies. Compare feedback on multiple sites, talk to alumni from your school who may be at the mentioned company. Do your homework. These sites should be viewed just as another tool for gathering information and preparing for interviews.
Can you recall the children’s game called “PASS IT ON?” Rarely does the comment at the start of the game end up as the same comment at the end of the game. REMEMBER, not only are there at least two sides to every story….those stories over time aren’t always remembered accurately!
2 comments August 27, 2008
Improving Your Workplace
By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC, www.themetznergroup.com
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
What can you do to improve your workplace? Some civil engineering firms are hiring, some are cutting staff and some are hanging tough with their current teams. Regardless of your status in your company, how can you be happier at work?
Say “Good Morning!”
Years ago I would get to work about 30 minutes before the rest of my team at the engineering firm where I worked. By the time others arrived, I was deep into my morning. One day a staff member came in my office and shut the door. She looked so serious. “Why are you mad at me?” she asked. I had no idea what she was talking about. It seems that I had tunnel vision. That morning, as with other mornings, I left my office to retrieve something from another office and walked right past this staff member and several others, so involved in my work I had not even noticed they were there. I had not said “Good Morning.” This told me a couple of things: work was overwhelming, too stressful and was changing my personality. Additionally, I saw how my behavior directly affected others in the office. That never happened again. A smile and a “How’s it going?” can make a difference to another person and to yourself!
Space Planning
Look around you. Is your desk organized? If not, would you feel calmer if it was? Yes? Then make time to clean it up! Do you have pictures that make you smile? Do you have cartoon clippings that you know will bring a laugh? Can you invest in a new lamp, some desk items that will warm up a sterile workspace? Do it, fix it and change it! Take control over your space, no matter how large or small the space is.
Think Positively
We all get bogged down every now and then. For some of us, we can get stuck in a negative mindset. So many times I say to myself that “negative brings negative and positive brings positive!” Everyone knows, as Randy Pausch would say, an “Eeyore” type person…doom and gloom, someone who always sees the glass half-empty. They can’t see the possibilities, only the problems. These are not the best people to have on your team. You can’t change them, but you can change how you respond to them. And, your response can pick up the team. Try it one day. You’ll find that by thinking positively, you will act positively and those around you will want to be around you!
Be Gracious
As mentioned in our recent BLOG, remember to say “Thanks” to those who help you; be gracious to those around you. Our personal problems often seem overwhelming. Someone once told me that if you ask a group of people to write all their problems down and then tell everyone to pick which problems out of all those collected that they want….EVERYONE wants to take their own problems back! Each of your colleagues comes to work with their own issues. Some you may know, some you don’t. Don’t add to someone else’s problems. Work may be the only place they can go to feel sane!
Make Friends
Some people will say that work life and personal life should be separate. Let’s be realistic. We spend at a minimum, 8 hours at work, 5 days a week. Studies show that having friendships at work make us happier and more productive. You should plan on lunch out of the office with one or more people at least one time a week. Getting to know colleagues can also help workflow and teaming.
Get Outside
Try to get out of the office building at least once a day. If weather doesn’t permit, at least get out of your office or workspace. Clear your mind for some time during the day. You’ll be fresher and have a better perspective if you remove yourself from work stress for a short period(s) during the day. It is suggested that breaks boost retention and bring clarity.
For the past 20+ years I have been telling candidates that going to work and feeling stressed and unhappy is a waste of a perfectly good day. Sometimes you can change your behavior and the workplace follows…other times, you need to change the workplace and your happiness follows!
Add comment August 14, 2008
Taking Flex Time To The Next Level
Most civil engineering firms have committed to practice sustainability in their offices. This typically means using recycled materials and natural light, utilizing low-fume materials and recycling paper and plastics (among other products). Firms even have green practice coordinators. With these commitments in place, the modified work week is becoming a possibility.
How great would it be to have a long weekend every other week? Just think of it: you could schedule all your appointments on a Friday, in advance… take a 3 day vacation twice a month…spend every other Friday doing whatever you want!
With the ever growing popular 9/80 work week, work is scheduled over a nine day work period as opposed to a ten day work period, taking a “flex day” off every second week. Now, do keep in mind, that due to project demands, actual hours may vary from the average nine hour work day. But, this compressed work week allows full-time employees to eliminate at least one work day every other week. Employees work longer hours during the remaining days. These work schedules have to be agreed upon between the employee, their project team and their client.
Civil engineering firm leaders have been hesitant to change the basic 5/40 work week due to concerns that clients won’t be taken care of. “What happens if a Client calls and they need to talk to someone immediately?” With today’s use of Blackberries and cell phones, clients can reach their engineers 24 hours a day. Also, office teams alternate weeks so it is not as if the office is empty with just skeleton teams in place. As mentioned, employers will expect that business needs may demand a temporary change in schedule and that the employees will need to remain flexible to meet those needs. Studies are suggesting that work week flexibility is not only highly valued by staff, but employee productivity rises.
According to the Online TDM Encyclopedia, a compressed work week assists in: congestion reduction by reducing peak-period driving; reduces total commuting trips and parking requirements; reduces travel costs; increases commuter choice…to name a few. Yes, in all fairness, there are possible decreases in commuting time and that may mean increases in other basic driving during the “day off.” But, the benefits seem to outweigh the costs. Employers need to change their way of thinking and become “more flexible” and practice a more “outcome-oriented management” philosophy.
Typically, happy employees are productive employees! And, think how much easier it will be to attract that tough to get talent with this benefit…sign me up!
1 comment July 31, 2008
Social NOTworking
By Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
That’s right, Social NOTworking. This title has a double meaning, which I will get to in a minute.
If you have the internet in front of you, you cannot help but at the very least be aware of the social networking/web 2.0 phenomenon. Here are some of the more prevalent social networking/web 2.0 sites that you may be a member of:
Linkedin, MySpace, Classmates.com, Facebook, ERE, Flickr, Meetup.com, Twitter, Second Life, Ning, Plaxo, Naymz, Xanga and FastPitch. And trust me when I tell you, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Used properly in terms of your profession, these sites live up to the “Social Networking” category that they reside in. Used improperly in terms of your profession, they become what I like to call “Social NOTworking” sites. Check it out:
A. Are the social networking sites NOT working for you in meeting your professional networking goals?
OR
B. Are the social networking sites bogging you down so much that you are NOT working?
If you answered “YES” to question A:
The first issue that you may want to address is actually question B. Beyond that, what you need to realize is that these social networks are great tools (“tools” being the key word here). The challenge is to utilize all your tools in your workbench, but some recruiters are SO reliant on these sites the same way so many recruiters are reliant solely on online resume databases that nothing much of measure is ever accomplished. You would not build a swing set with just a Phillips head screwdriver, right?
As a recruiter or HR professional, or even as a hiring manager or staff level engineer always on the lookout for outstanding additions to your team, make sure you are looking on the RIGHT sites. Chances are you are not going to find a civil engineering professionals hanging out on MySpace or running around on Second Life, but you may find those quality professionals on Linkedin or Facebook (Facebook is very similar to MySpace, but the presentation and the quality of content is much classier and desirable). For civil engineering, stick with the pioneers in social networking like Facebook & Linkedin – they are conservative and professional and run parallel to the personalities that we associate with the civil engineering community. Everyone else is trying to develop the next best social networking site, and each time they pull themselves further and further away from mainstream into areas that are unique, but not relevant to your professional audience. Though I am not a civil engineer, I am confident that civil engineers are not following each others’ every move on Twitter.
Finally, because these sites ARE all the rage, you cannot deny them. Develop interesting and exciting company MySpace or FaceBook pages that reach out to the college crowd. Have your employees blog or answer questions on the corresponding forums, throw up some pictures of completed projects or of your CEO knocking down a strike for the company bowling team, post jobs and publish press releases. Show up to the college career fairs with a couple of laptops displaying your MySpace of Facebook page and impress the masses. There is rarely a college student on campus who does not utilize one of these sites in their life.
If you answered “YES” to question B:
First and foremost, if you did answer “YES” to question B and you would like to respond in a defensive manner to this blog entry, make sure you come up with a nifty user name, you do not want your boss to know you are a “Social NOTworker.”
I suspect for a lot of people their day goes, or has gone, something like this: Arrive at the office at 8:30 AM, fire up a hot cup of joe and crank on the computer. Logon to your Linkedin account and check out the connection updates that occurred overnight, and then the status updates. But hey, cool, you can expand that list to see ALL of those updates, not just the most recent half dozen. Checking out what your connections did overnight, you click on the people that they made connections with and see if you might know them. If you do know them, then you make a request to connect, which leads to the frequent clicking of the “Send/Receive” button on your outlook toolbar all day. Maybe you don’t know that person, but you used to work at the company they work for, or maybe your neighbor does, so you click on the company name to see what other people in your extended network may work for them in an effort to connect. Going to the status updates you see all the completely irrelevant groups (with the exception of course to the Civil Engineering Central Group) that your connections joined, like the Google Group that is for those who use Google as their primary search engine (boy, what a way to really differentiate yourself); or The Open Networker Group which puts you in a group where everyone connects with everyone and you are not allowed to turn down an invitation or you will be booted out. You’ve requested to join all the groups that you want to join for the day and you anxiously await for the group moderator to approve your admittance into those groups. Along the way you have read and contributed to all the blogs that your connections run and you finally look up and realize that it is now 10:30AM…not only do you need a refill on your coffee, but you realize that you forgot to logon to your Twitter account before you even came to work this morning so you could let everyone know how you were feeling at that moment, only then to let everyone know that you were eating a bowl of Golden Grahams for breakfast. Time for a break, you’ve been working hard, so take a 10 minute stroll around the office, refill the coffee mug, sit back down to check your email and you see that your ex-girlfriend, one of your old college professors and the guy 3 cubes down from you have all posted comments on your wall on your Facebook page. Logon to Facebook, check out your wall, reply back onto their walls, accept invitations from old friends or colleagues who have tracked you down, email them, check out their photo albums, tag people in their photos that you know, and then spend the next 30 minutes using the Classmate Search and People You May Know tools to further expand your network on Facebook. Take some worthless but fun quizzes, serve up a few electronic cocktails and join a few causes. Time for lunch. Take an hour away from the office, clear your head, have a nice lunch and return to the office refreshed and ready focus on work for the rest of the day. Work your butt off all afternoon playing catch up on all that you missed during the morning. Your day is almost done, it’s nearly 7PM, you are ready to finally go home, and because you can’t really NOT do it, you send a tequila booze mail to your new friends that you made on Facebook today, and send one to yourself in celebration of the fact that you just received an email indicating that your application to join the Overachievers Club, a private membership club on Linkedin for outstanding individuals.
Have you been a social NOTworker?
The fact is, social networking is here, it is relevant, and it can be utilized in so many different ways. These networks can be a lot of fun, but when it comes to using them for professional purposes, I am in no way suggesting that you abandon or ignore them, you will be left in the dust. But learn how to effectively use the well known sites like Linkedin & Facebook to recruit for your firm or for your clients. Be seen, enhance your visibility and credibility by being active in the forums and blogs that specifically relate to what you do, like the ones you find here at CivilEngineeringCentral.com , they are full of intelligent information that you can really use. Just be smart about it!
Finally, here is a little 5 minute clip you might enjoy…so sit back, throw back a
compliments of Facebook, and enjoy:
1 comment July 16, 2008
Understanding Generation “Next”
By Matt Barcus, President, Precision Executive Search, Inc.
AND
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Okay, if you have not noticed, the analysis of “Generation Y” or “Generation Next” has been getting a lot of attention in our industry these days. You see this topic discussed here on our blog and forum, and it has been discussed in countless newsletters and trade journals, including the April e-newsletter published by CivilEngineeringCentral.com (If you would like to sign up for our newsletter BTW, click HERE ). Now that we have the self promotion of our site out of the way, let me get to point 
!
I recently read the following comment on ERE:
“Serial job seekers job hop, as if they are job seeker junkies. They get a thrill from it. I think we will find a number of Gen Y Serial Job Seekers who are early in their career but I don’t think those individuals will be job hopping for long. In my experience of examining the Generations and their work values, Gen Y is not motivated by money. It is career pathing, social factors and a sense of job ownership that they seek.”
Barb Irwin & Cara Bobchek of HR Advisors Group in D.C. recently conducted a study which ultimately backs this statement up. According to their research, the most significant factor in determining their (Gen Y) decision to accept their current position was future career opportunities. I believe that the young professionals of today will bounce around some early in their careers until they find the firm that delivers on their promises and will allow them to grow and advance at a faster pace than what we have seen in the past, and that offers a level of flexibility that this industry has not yet encountered. I think they want to be loyal to a firm, as long as the firm is being loyal to them. Part of the contributing factor to their frequent job changes early on, compared to earlier generations, is that there are SO many options out there SO readily available through SO many different medias, medias that did not exist in generations past.
Let’s look at another excerpt from the article written by HR Advisors Group:
‘ “…It seems that the younger generation is so used to whining and getting what they want. It almost seems like they feel that the company works for them instead of they work for the company.” ‘
It’s a common theme that we’re hearing more and more in our HR and management consulting practice: younger workers appear to carry a “sense of entitlement” in their careers. Employers ask us, “How do we manage the younger generation in our firms, especially in light of the different approach that they seem to take to their careers than the older (my) generation?”
The “sense of entitlement” comment struck a chord with one of our readers who felt the need to respond to that tag with the following comment:
“Our generation keeps being blamed for that “entitlement” regarding our careers but I think the problem is that we now need to prepare ourselves more than the other generations. I got out of college a yr ago with a degree in Business Management, another one in Civil Engineering and I am prominent in AutoCAD, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Project…..not to mention I am fluent in english and spanish….but when looking for a job companies still offer us salaries as if we didn’t go to school and expect us to work 10+ hour days. I don’t think “entitlement” is the problem, I think is those companies who don’t know the importance of their human resources what carries the real problem. Getting an engineering degree is not easy, and therefore we deserve to be paid accordingly”
So what does all of this mean? Where do we go from here? How do we take the philosophy that has been successfully learned and depended on for so many years by the existing civil engineering leadership…and change it? How is your organization responding to this issue?
Add comment April 30, 2008
Where Have All The Civil Engineering Firms Gone?
By Carol Metzner, Managing Partner, www.civilengineeringcentral.com and President, The Metzner Group LLC, www.themetznergroup.com
Acquisitions in the civil engineering community exploded in 2007 with a steady group following this year. A client jokingly told me that eventually we will all work for about 5 firms…that is all that will be left!
While I think that is a slight exaggeration, the pace of these M&As does not seem to be slowing. What has happened to the traditional firms of the past? Certainly, these consolidations allow firms a great way to increase staff and presence in particular locations or technical arenas. But, if you joined a firm because of a specific company culture….what do you do now?
Are these large national and international firms of combined technical talents good for our industry? What do you think?
3 comments April 16, 2008
Have you REALLY spoken with your staff lately?
By Carol A. Metzner, President, The Metzner Group, LLC, www.themetznergroup.com and Managing Partner, www.CivilEngineeringCentral.com
- Are you having a good day?
- How are your projects progressing?
- What support can I offer to make your work easier?
- What do you like about your job?
- What can I do to make your week better?
Next time you are tempted to pick up the phone and reprimand that headhunter, take that very moment to talk with and listen to your staff! Then, you won’t need to worry about any headhunters calling.
1 comment March 21, 2008
